McMinnville’s creative Northeast Gateway District is slowly transitioning from a light-industrial warehouse district into a vibrant mixed-use neighborhood, with Alpine Avenue as its unique signature street. To provide new cohesive design standards for the remaining streets in the redeveloping district, SERA was hired by the City of McMinnville to create a unified public realm “brand” for the district.
Working with in-house landscape architects, SERA presented a series of design options to city staff and the Urban Renewal Board, addressing geometry, materials, furnishings and plantings. The result is a flexible set of standards that can respond to distinct opportunities and local conditions. Taken together, the final design standards foster a comfortable pedestrian environment, continuing the material palette of Alpine Avenue, and accommodating freight truck movements that will remain an essential part of the working district.
As a result of these standards and as redevelopment occurs, incremental street improvements will produce a cohesive public realm for the entire Northeast Gateway District.
